Trump Administration removing animal abuse records from USDA website, including soring
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Tuesday's Horse
February 2017

Not surprisingly you will see that the Horse Protection Act which outlaws horse soring is at the center of it along with the Animal Welfare Act.

The beginning of the end of animal protection and welfare under Trump warned about by many is appearing.

Here are three sources on the Trump Administration’s recent move to hide the records of animal abusers by removing them from the USDA website. This is supposedly being done to protect the abusers’ rights as individuals. Not surprisingly you will see that the Horse Protection Act which outlaws horse soring is at the center of it along with the Animal Welfare Act.

From Wikipedia: Soring is the practice of applying irritants or blistering agents to the front feet or forelegs of a horse, making the horse pick their feet up higher in an exaggerated manner that creates the movement or "action" desired in the show ring.

Mercy for Animals report (citing the New York Times):

As of Friday morning, the USDA has removed information relating to the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act from its site.

This includes animal welfare inspections and records about the enforcement of these laws. They’ve even removed lists of regulated facilities, all without any advance notice.

The department is claiming that this is about privacy. However, the reports already remove the locations of facilities and other sensitive information could have easily been redacted so that this information would still be accessible to the public.

Science Magazine report:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today removed public access to tens of thousands of reports that document the numbers of animals kept by research labs, companies, zoos, circuses, and animal transporters—and whether those animals are being treated humanely under the Animal Welfare Act.

Henceforth, those wanting access to the information will need to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

The same goes for inspection reports under the Horse Protection Act, which prohibits injuring horses’ hooves or legs for show.

The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department has removed animal welfare inspection reports, enforcement records and other information about the treatment of animals from its website, citing privacy and other laws.

Tanya Espinosa, a spokeswoman for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the information was removed from the site around 11 a.m. Friday. She would not say if the removal was temporary or permanent in the new Trump administration.

The information is used by advocacy groups and other members of the public to look up information on commercial dog and horse breeders, some of whom have had a history of abuse. The reports included lists of animal welfare violations at those facilities and also at animal testing labs, and whether those violations have been corrected.

In place of the online database is a new message from the department saying it is “implementing actions to remove documents” related to the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act that contain personal information.

The records have been removed “based on our commitment to being transparent, remaining responsive to our stakeholders’ informational needs, and maintaining the privacy rights of individuals,” the online message says.

A famous quote, often attributed to Mohandas Gandhi, states, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

The United States is clearly going backwards under the current regime. It does not bode well for America’s future.

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